


A Budding Romance

by Fafsernir



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Banter, Buddies to lovers, Character Growth, First Meeting, First Time, Found Family, Friends to Lovers, Friendship and romance, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, so much banter and teasing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:14:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29261061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fafsernir/pseuds/Fafsernir
Summary: The summer break was over, which meant going back to university for David, after some well-earned rest. Stevie did not get as lucky when it came to resting over the break. They were, however, somewhat ready to slip back into old habits, good or bad, and make the most out of their time.Patrick was happy to be back. He thrived at uni, and it kept him busy. He had everything one could dream of, and he tried to ignore it when his brain suddenly seemed to tell him something was missing.
Relationships: Alexis Rose & David Rose, Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Patrick Brewer/Rachel, Sebastien Raine/David Rose, Stevie Budd & David Rose
Comments: 14
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Have a David/Patrick Uni AU fic, just for you! Tags are bond to change/be added. I blame a certain discord server for this fic, which just suddenly sprung to life and now lives in my brain. I will post as I write, but I am aiming to keep a regular schedule, and hope I can find the inspiration to do so. Thanks to everyone who let me ramble at them about this, you've been really helpful.  
> I write rather small chapters, just because that's my writing style and I like when it's quick to read, so I'll stick with pretty much the same length of chapters! :)  
> The E rating will only be for Patrick/David, which will happen somewhere down the road, don't worry. Let's nurse that slow burn for while, though ;)  
> I hope you'll enjoy this :D

A little to the left… Perfect.

The phone took the picture as it was told to, and David clicked on the result, then zoomed in instantly. His ringed fingers covered the label on the cup, as intended. There was no identifying mark left here. He wanted to show he was active, but he didn’t want people to know where he was. He looked at the filters for the picture for a while, swiping more or less quickly on each and everyone of them. He settled for one that was soft enough, but still upgraded the picture to an overall pretentious result. Good enough for social media. Then he typed some hashtags, shook his head and erased all of them. He was tapping the table with his fingers when someone decided his whole body language was inviting strangers to sit next to him.

He saw flannel before he noticed the long black hair and blue eyes, and remembered he had actually agreed to meet Stevie here, so it only made sense for her to sit without an invitation. Not that she would wait for any invitation anyway.

“You’re late,” he said, locking his phone without posting the picture. It could wait, it wasn’t the optimal moment to post it anyway, according to his sister.

“Are we checking punctuality, now?” she answered instantly, taking his cup and smelling his usual order. She put it back down quickly.

David couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t seen Stevie in a while, and he had missed their conversations. He would rather die than admit that, of course, but he was still glad to be back, if only for her.

“How was summer camp?” he asked, trying not to smile smugly as she shot daggers at him with a quick glare.

“Hell,” she whispered. “You didn’t think to tell me it was a bad idea?”

He laughed, fidgeting with his sunglasses before putting them on top of his head, only to take them off quickly when he felt the pressure on his hair. “I seem to recall saying it was a bad idea.”

“You weren’t convincing enough,” she mumbled. She looked tired, like she often did in the middle of the year, except they were only just starting. 

He had been only half-surprised when she had had a change of heart in her orientation.

Stevie started university at the same time he did. Three years ago, she joined a maths and computer degree. She was a nerd, even if she hated to be called one. David sometimes teased her about it, but he was honestly really impressed by her abilities. She didn't even enjoy science all that much, but she was good at it. She could get her way around a computer very easily, yet she mostly used hers to play solitary, especially in class, whenever the teachers weren't looking. They had already held tournaments during class with David, from opposite ends of the campus. It was a lot of fun, actually.

Her genius made her pass class. Nothing too hard. She had to work, which she wasn't a big fan of, but she had managed to get away with minimal effort. Then, in her third year, she was caught in some personal bullshit, with university and work being stressful. Long story short, she freaked out, like a lot of third or fourth years. She graduated, but she had already promised herself not to go further into computing science. It was not what she wanted. So, she took on the challenge of changing. Not that she enjoyed challenges all that much, she had gone into that bachelor's degree because it was easy and what she was good at. But between being miserable and trying to do something about it, she had chosen to do something. And so she had taken a summer course, while David fucked off far away from uni, to be able to join a business-whatever thing without having to start over as an undergraduate. David had tried to be supportive, but he had been a bit self-centered during his holidays, and she had been very busy trying to prove herself that she had the abilities to succeed. 

They had met during their first year at uni, had been equally bothered at each other, but had eventually become friends. With all the complications it brought, especially for someone like David, who had called a lot of people friends, but had never genuinely thought he had one. It had been odd, to realize he had felt lonely for his whole life, and to have finally understood what that feeling was. Not that she was aware of that, he had managed to keep it secret so far. 

“So, how was the beach?” Stevie asked after they'd talked for a bit. 

“Oh, lovely,” David smiled.

“And the boat?” He hummed in answer. She started listing other places or things he had done during the summer break. “The private plane? The house? Alcohol? Firecamps you stayed very far away from, except to take that one picture?”

“Have you been insta-stalking me?” he eventually asked.

This was why they were friends. The constant banting and teasing they both did around the other. It felt good to be like this with someone, and not really care about what you could say or not. They were both their true selves with each other, and they both enjoyed it. Not that they voiced that feeling, ever, but it was present. They just didn’t need to voice their feelings and steered away from that in all aspects of their lives anyway. Their friendship was a lot of unsaid agreements and promises. 

“I still think it should just be called instalking,” Stevie grinned in response. “But, yeah, your pictures got me through all this. Couldn’t have done it without it. Truly.”

“I almost can’t tell if you’re serious or not,” David squinted, trying to read her. Her smile indicated she very much was mocking him. “Well, I did spend a good summer, thanks for asking.”

“How was the family?”

“Whomst?” he asked, innocently, then looked at his empty cup. “We didn’t talk much. It was fine. I actually slept again, it did wonders to my eyes.”

She raised her eyebrows, hiding her mouth with her hand. “I can obviously tell.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Of you sleeping it off on some paradise island while I was stuck here? I can’t imagine why I’d be jealous.”

They laughed and fell into easy conversation, catching up on each other’s summers. Stevie rambled about class and some of her classmates, and David talked about some of the crazy stories his sister had told him about, that had happened during his previous year of university. They all sounded more insane than the previous one.

They only left when they had to, Stevie getting her fix of caffeine – apparently, she had upped her dose in the morning, lately - and David having to get to the welcome class, or whatever they had decided to call it that year. It usually was a couple of hours wasted to present the degree and its courses, which was already written online, then present some professors, but only those who were there that day. Then, there was a small but strong speech about how hard the year would be, but how they would have to hold on, work hard, and come to the teachers if they had questions or doubts. Everyone usually nodded, and only the annoying students would ask questions during the year - seriously, David had never talked to any of his teachers, outside of the occasional mandatory communication. In another life, he might have tried to get closer to some, but it was more Alexis’s style than his own. 

He wondered what Alexis was up to, as he dragged the cursor away from his note-taking app on his computer - he had not taken any notes, except writing the head of department’s name and email, to click on Instagram. He put the page on only a portion of his screen to conveniently make it go away, if some teacher was to step behind him, and checked Alexis’s profile. There was a picture of her kissing what was probably her current and new boyfriend - David didn’t remember him - and them on a beach. David missed the beach.

He closed the app, but moved on to his messages after discreetly synchronizing his phone and computer. Stevie’s name was bold on the screen and he swallowed back a smile. It was just sleeping emojis, and he answered with a gif of a baby falling face first into a couch as he fell asleep. They started texting, and David pretended to take notes, answering whenever there seemed to be information important for him to take note of it, and half listening the rest of the time.

_“They printed out a sheet that tells us exactly what they are saying. They’re not adding any new information” he typed quickly._

_“As uj’”_

_“How is it going over here?”_

_“Boring. A girl keeps asking questions.”_

_“I know it’s tempting, but murder’s still illegal”_

_“Not if you don’t get caught.”_

_“It is still technically illegal, even if you don’t get caught. You just won’t get punished”_

_“Mood killer”_

_“Are we still talking about the girl?”_

_“You owe me a beer, Rose”_

_“How does that even work?”_

_“Ok, sure, I’ll pay my own, can we still go out tonight, tho?”_

_“You’ve got strange ways to ask someone out for drinks.”_

_“Fuck off”_ Before David could answer, another message appeared. _“You were gone for a while, must have lost some skills”_

David felt slightly bad for this. He hadn’t really come back to visit over the break. He had again slipped back into old habits and gone to New York, where he had spent most of his life. He had seen the same friends he kept calling friends to give people the impression he had a good thing going on with his life. He felt more and more disconnected from them, and he was having less and less fun pretending to care. He just wanted them to care about him. He wasn’t ready to let go of that just yet. He just hadn’t wished to spend his summer where he also spent the rest of the year. Visiting New York had only been half his time, then his family had taken up most of it. 

He had kept contact with Stevie, but he hadn’t come back to support her. He didn’t think she needed it. Did she need it? Was she even saying that she had wished for him to be here? Probably not, she was just asking to hang out, with booze, with no hidden meaning. That was pretty in character, after all.

_“Is it more of a drink and chat plan, or looking for something?”_ he decided to text back. It wasn’t the same preparation if they were to go as friends, or as each other’s wingman.

_“Drink and chat.”_

David smiled, then hid it with his hand, and pretended to pay attention to what seemed to be the end of the welcome speech. The day wasn’t done, but they would at least be doing more than just listening to the same speech they had heard for the past few years. And, now, he had the promise of an evening of drinks and catching up with Stevie to look up to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your feedback!  
> I will try to post weekly, maybe more if I can fall into a nice writing rhythm. I hope you guys will enjoy this story, I'm having fun writing it! :)  
> Special thanks to Randa for all the help and brainstorming!

“I forgot how obnoxious you were about clothes,” Stevie said after yet another comment from David. He shrugged, ignoring the comment. 

She hadn’t forgotten about it, of course. He talked about it too much for her to forget, anyway. “That’s H&M. Collection from two years ago. Oh, she definitely lost way too much weight to still be wearing this,” he continued instead, pointing at another student. Stevie chuckled, drinking from her bottle.

They had been sitting on a bench for the last few minutes with the food they had collected, and the water bottles that contained anything but water. It had been their tradition for the last two years, to go to the big welcome fair the university threw to promote the different clubs. They weren’t that interested in that aspect of the student’s life, but universities very much thought it was a thing that deserved that much attention. David had avoided it the first year. He had come the second year just for the food. Their third year, they had introduced booze and had reached the point in their friendship where criticizing others at the beginning of the year helped them get through the rest of it. It was also a way to meet people. Not to friend anyone, but the beginning of the school year was chaotic enough that people were going more easily for one night stands. That was how, the year before, David had ended up at the president of the French club’s flat, with said president going down on him after a particularly nice wine tasting session. Stevie had also scored with one of the members of the same club, and they had laughed when they had bumped into each other the morning after. It turned out that both students were flatmates, and the walk of shame had been very lively between Stevie and David.

It was now a tradition to sit, criticize, and hopefully find a warm body after enough alcohol in their system to forget some of their standards. Not that either of them had pretty high standards, to start with. It was also a good moment to lock in some groups they would rather avoid on campus. The hockey team was a big No as a general rule, they tried to avoid the French club after having gone to one too many cheese parties and gotten down to business with one too many members. Not that they had a big social circle of friends anyway, but it was always good to know towards which group they could go, and which one to avoid. 

Was it superficial? Yes, totally, but they both enjoyed it, and it wasn’t like they had better things to do at the start of the semester.

“Oh that’s definitely off the rack. And Walmart. Wrong size, but that might be a stylish choice.”

“A good one?” Stevie asked, and laughed when David just glared at her. “You should just go into fashion.”

“Oh, I know too much about how that world works to even poke that specific bear with a twenty-foot stick.”

“Because the artistic world is much better?” Stevie asked, already knowing the answer. David didn’t answer, and looked around. “What about that?” she asked as they both followed a group with their eyes, lingering on their backs once they had walked past them.

“Nice,” David said.

“I don’t know that brand,” Stevie shoved him gently with her shoulder, but she didn’t look away.

“So, did you meet anyone interesting during your boring summer?” he asked, after the group had disappeared from sight.

Stevie shrugged, looking intently at one of the clubs advertising their activities. Someone was standing there, biting into what looked to be a delicious sandwich.

“Wanna get something more than just candies and crumbles of cake?”

David instantly got on his feet, finishing the first bottle they had brought, and wincing as alcohol went down his throat.

They walked and talked about the many interesting people Stevie had gotten to talk to. Which was rather short, as she hadn’t met anyone of significance. David talked a bit about his summer, but didn’t go into a lot of details.

* * *

After a few muttered “Stevie! Get back here! Stevie! Don’t leave me alone!” between his teeth, David stood by himself in the middle of the suddenly too crowded area, Stevie abandoning him to go to the restroom. People were rushing by, greeting people, laughing, smiling, talking, shouting, walking, running. David took a deep breath. He hadn’t felt like an unseen ant in a sea of people in a while. Even during the summer, even during those long parties he had attended, there had always been something interesting. Someone he wanted to fuck, someone Alexis wanted to get a picture with, his parents making fools of themselves among people who equally made fools of themselves, when he had gone to a party with them.

But now that he wasn’t the center of attention, that he wasn’t Alexis’s brother, or good old Johnny’s son, or TV star Moira Rose’s son, he was… He was invisible, he was nobody. Stevie made him feel like someone. But now she was gone, to pee or whatever, and he felt himself crawling back into his shell, building up that wall again. 

Where was the booze when you needed it, he wondered as he glanced at his empty bottle. They had finished that a while back.

Okay, he could do it, he just had to survive for a bit, and his phone was a good distraction.

“Hi! Would you like to join us?!” he vaguely heard, but didn’t pay attention. A hand got into his sight, waving between his face and his screen.

His head snapped up. “What?” he asked, obviously uninterested.

He hadn’t expected… that. A young man was standing in front of him, all smiles and grins, wearing a sports hat with what looked like a team’s logo or initials printed on it. He had a full gear of… David was pretty sure it wasn’t a golf attire, but it was as close a guess as any. Cherry on top, the guy had painted two lines across his cheeks, one on each, and he was holding a big glove in his hand. David was pretty sure that was part of some sports he had once been forced to play and had run away from very quickly, but he didn’t care enough to find the name.

“Hi, I’m Patrick! I’m on the school’s team, Cafe Tropical! What’s your name?”

“David,” he answered, almost automatically, taken aback by how someone could have approached him and thought he would be interested in anything that resembled a physical activity. Or wondering how someone could have seen him, staring at his phone, and thought he wanted to talk to anyone, at all. David texted “help” to Stevie, barely looking down at his phone to do so, then locked it and put it away. He could entertain the idea of listening to this man for a bit, sure.

“Nice to meet you, David! Have you ever played baseball? You can join even if you haven’t!” That man’s smile was awful. It was awful because it was so cheerful and contagious and David wanted to smile, except that he really didn’t want to smile.

“Yeah, mh, I’m not really…” David gestured to his own body, then to Patrick’s outfit. “into this,” he finished off lamely.

“I’m sure I could convince you otherwise,” the man grinned, and David wondered if he had been clear enough to indicate he wasn’t into sports, or if Patrick was talking about something else. Like his outfit, or himself. Because David had never said anything about _not_ being into either. Patrick was slightly shorter than him, he had brown eyes, what looked like to be short brown hair, and such a perfect smile. He looked good, and David would definitely not say no to that. To him. “But you can always support the team! What is it you do here?”

Patrick was good, because David didn’t realize what he was doing, and he answered naturally. Well, almost naturally.

“Art,” he said dumbly. 

“Oh that’s cool, do you prefer digital, original, paintings, watercolour, any other term I’m not familiar with?” Patrick asked, as he was making the clipboard in his hands more present in the conversation, snapping what was holding the paper against the board.

“I don’t _do_ art,” David explained. “I study History.”

“Oh,” Patrick said, almost in a question. “We have a newsletter for the team, you can sign up to see when we play next, we just need an email address,” he added, playing with his pen against the clipboard.

David took it as a reflex as he dug himself even deeper into a bad explanation of his degree. Writing down something was a good distraction, and it helped him focus on what he was saying. Why was he making such a fool out of himself? Social interactions really weren’t his forte.

“I study History, but the one about art.”

“Oh,” Patrick nodded, thinking for a second, and grinning that awful grin. “So, it kinds of sound like you’re a History of Art undergrad, David.”

“Excuse you,” David said, stopping as he was writing the arobase of his student email. It wasn’t like he checked it a lot. “I’m not an undergrad,” he replied, hurt by the insinuation that he was younger than he looked. Which, all in all, wasn’t that terrible an insinuation, but it was too late to retract his response and the tone.

“Okay,” the man decided to chuckle, and David wanted to both rip that smile off his face, and have him make that lovely sound again. “David,” he checked the clipboard he had been handed back, “Rose. Catch you on the field?”

“You definitely won’t,” David shook his head.

“See you next game,” Patrick smiled as he walked away.

“I won’t come,” he said as he realized he could have put a fake name or mail on the list, instead of joining the newsletter of the baseball team.

David blinked a few times, frustrated by how the conversation had turned.

Why was the team even called Cafe Tropical? Didn’t uni teams usually have the school name, or whatever? It was stupid. The hockey team had always had the uni’s name, at least. Why was David bothered that he had made a fool of himself with a random pretty guy?

* * *

“He _basically_ called me irrelevant,” David said, his hands gesturing to insist on how crazily insulting it sounded.

“Did he, now?” Stevie was smirking, that smug bastard. She was making fun of him, and David hated her a bit for that.

“Well, you know.” She looked at him, indicating that she clearly didn’t know. “Okay, maybe it was about my studies.”

“And what did you say you were studying, exactly?”

“You know what I’m studying,” David huffed.

“Oh, _I_ know. Do _you_? I’ve heard you explain your degree before, and sometimes you didn’t mention the word ‘art’ or ‘history’ for five minutes.”

“Of course I know what I study!” he gasped, betrayed by what he had thought was a friend. Maybe he would be better off without her, after all. 

“So, what did he exactly say?” Stevie eventually asked, and David shrugged.

“He said _‘oh_ ’,” he imitated the guy’s voice as best as he could, with such a short sound. Stevie decided it was a good moment to burst out laughing, and David gasped. “You are the worst.”

“If you say so,” she laughed, and he rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath and mimicking her to signal his annoyance. 

He didn’t even know why he was thinking about it, or why he decided that talking to Stevie was a good idea. It was stupid, anyway. This whole thing had been stupid. Just because he always struggled to simply state what he was studying didn’t mean he had to sound stupid with everyone he met. And yet, it kept happening, like Stevie had pointed out. It wasn’t like he was going to see that man ever again, and it certainly wasn’t like he was going to attend any baseball game any time soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Going into Patrick's head for that one! ;) I'll write mostly with David's POV, but will switch to Patrick's every so often!  
> Thanks Pine67 for all the help, for listening, and for reading over :D

Patrick rubbed his eyes and yawned, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He checked his hair quickly, took a deep breath, and exhaled. 

“Alright, you can do this,” he told himself before marching out, to his first day of class. It wasn't a big day, just some introduction to his degree, and they would dive into it quickly after that. They didn't waste any time, unlike undergraduate courses, which always took forever to start. 

Patrick didn't mind. Mostly. He was just a bit tired. He had worked all summer and barely taken a break, only to go visit his parents. And that was never a time to rest. He didn't see them a whole lot, so they talked for long hours, did a lot of family bonding activities together, and Patrick didn't rest as much as he was used to when he was alone. It was a good kind of exhaustion, but exhaustion all the same. 

He had also seen Rachel, his ex-girlfriend, and it had been so easy to fall back into conversation with her that he wondered why they had ever broken up. She didn't live near campus, though, so that wasn't a question he cared to think about too much. Except that he had thought about it, because it wasn't going all that well with Divya, and maybe he should go back to someone things had worked out with. But they hadn't. They clearly hadn't, because they had broken up, more than once. Then why did he keep thinking about Rachel after seeing her? He missed the comfortable feeling of someone knowing him on an intimate level. The safety of knowing someone so well, and knowing that everything he was, Rachel had put up with before, more than once. 

Maybe he was just thinking that because he was on a dry spell with his girlfriend, but things would get better, he was sure. He shouldn't be focusing on that, anyway. He needed to listen, and take notes, and go to the first actual class. 

He noticed a few new faces in class. Some he’d caught glimpses of before, others he had never met in his life. He visited campus a couple of times during the summer, and he thought he recognized some from the summer class, but he hadn't really talked to them, as he had not taken part of the class himself. He wasn't all that interested in meeting new people, to be entirely honest. He had enough acquaintances, his baseball team, some colleagues, and his girlfriend. He needed something more, sometimes, but he never was sure of what it was, and he felt comfortable enough with what he had most of the time, anyway, to bother trying to change. So he didn't spend too much time looking at new faces, and fell back with his group of study from the past years. He wouldn't call them friends, but they talked easily and worked even better together, so they kept each other company during class. Most of them already had a good circle of friends outside of class, and no one seemed interested in digging deeper into a possible friendship. 

Patrick focused in class, instead of thinking too long about possible friendships. He genuinely enjoyed classes. It gave him a purpose, and he knew he could get a job he'd actually enjoy once he was done with his studies. It helped that he was good at it, too. Working with numbers calmed him, not that he was the most stressful person in the world, but it was something he liked doing, and could do over a long period of time. It was better than shelving DVDs or books, at least for Patrick’s preferences. He couldn't wait to be able to actually work, and be done with university. Because as much as he enjoyed it, it was a lot of pressure. He had to get good grades to keep his scholarship, and he was juggling a part-time job, a chatty roommate, baseball practise, and his social life. He had managed so far, but every day it felt like a steeper hill he had to climb. Which was okay, he guessed, because hiking was one of his favourite hobbies, after all. He did enjoy the effort he had to take to get to such satisfying results. University was like that. A lot of sweating, obstacles, and never a straight path to get to the end of it, but it was also worth it. He was motivated, albeit a little worried about everything he had to do. As long as he was in control of everything, he would be okay. 

* * *

He was not in control of everything.

“It's been months and you don't even have a single picture of us on your phone,” Divya said and Patrick almost growled in frustration. It didn't happen often, but sometimes he just wanted to quit a discussion. 

“I don't like changing the backdrop with a picture of someone,” he chose to explain, because it was true. He always prefered to put a picture of something entirely calming, and people weren't calming. The landscapes he could see after some hikes were peaceful, so they usually were his phone’s background. 

“Gosh, that's not the point, you know what I mean.” He knew. He knew, but it was easier to pretend he didn't. It was easier to justify one thing he could explain than to get into the stuff he couldn't. Such as, why did his relationships never work? Why did he always get… bored, after a while? Why was sex always awkward and weird? Why was there always an expiration date on his relationships, and how had he already gotten to it with Divya? Because that was what it was. The end of a relationship, that he was trying not to let end, because then he would be alone, and he wasn't used to that. 

He had never been directly pressured into being with anyone, but it felt like the thing to do. It felt like it was what he had to do. Have someone, because that was how his parents had gone through life, with each other. And his parents were doing good, they were happy. He just wanted the same thing, and had always tried to follow a pattern without knowing why. It was just the recipe to being okay. And he felt in control when he was in a relationship. It was easy. Well, it really wasn't at that moment.

“You know what,” she said as he stood there in silence. “We're not doing this right now. I'll go get a drink, be with people who will actually enjoy my presence, and we'll talk about this later.”

He was not in control. He was losing control. He needed to control something.

“Let me buy you coffee tomorrow morning.”

“Sure.”

He felt a bit better. He was in control of the time they'd see each other. Even if it was going to be a moment he would lose control. He could think about what to say, could anticipate what she would say. Take the lead in the break up that he was sure was coming. 

She had already walked away, and he stood awkwardly in the hallway, wondering where to go. He didn’t really want to go in the same direction as her, so he moved further inside the house. They had spent most of their time outside, going inside only to quietly argue, and Patrick didn’t even know how or why they had started arguing. 

He really liked Divya. He didn’t know if he loved her, but he genuinely liked her. She was smart, she was beautiful, he could have interesting conversations with her and… And somehow, it wasn’t working. Six months and it was already going up in flames. His relationships only lasted a few months, usually, then either he or his girlfriend at the time would need to get out of the relationship. He didn’t know how to make a relationship last. He didn’t know what to do.

Patrick wandered inside, not really feeling like partying anymore. It was the first party of the year, organized by some rich kid from his class. He had been throwing parties consistently for the past three years now, and it seemed that the fourth year wouldn’t be party-less. Patrick didn’t go to all of them, only when he had time, no baseball game the next day, and wasn’t studying. Which wasn’t that often. He had gone mainly because Divya had wanted to, when he had told her about it. It was supposed to be a party for their whole class, but Patrick had seen more people from outside their class, and he was tired. If he was at a party, he wanted to be with people he knew. Maybe he should just head out.

He looked around, checking the paintings on the wall. He wondered if one had a stain, or if it was part of the art, and spent way too much time on this detail. He finished his drink, and was contemplating taking a last one before heading home when he finally saw a familiar face. Two familiar faces. Even if ‘familiar’ was a bit strong. He had talked to Stevie maybe twice, he just knew she was in his class, and she hadn’t been last year. He wasn’t entirely sure what she had been studying before. Or if her name was even Stevie. He was pretty sure it was, though.

He remembered the man, too. He had met a lot of people that day, but David Rose had been a name he had thought about. He had smiled to himself when he had put down the email addresses they collected and added them to the baseball team’s newsletter. Somehow, it hadn’t felt hard to talk with him, tease him, and get him to sign the sheet. Maybe it had been David’s vagueness and obvious wish to be elsewhere that had helped Patrick feel better. It was easier to not care when the person in front of you clearly didn’t care. And it was easy to tease, too.

David was wearing a leather jacket at the party, which made Patrick shudder because it couldn’t be comfortable. There still was a hint of summer in the air, and a leather jacket didn’t sound like the type of cloth one would want on their shoulders. Patrick sure didn’t. It looked really good on David, though. He was also wearing those pants that were also skirts? Patrick was unsure, he had never seen someone wear that until he had met David for the first time. He looked nice.

Patrick wasn’t sure how, or why, but he found himself next to them, and he smiled when he heard them laugh, David squeezing Stevie’s arm as he did so.

“Oh! Patrick!” Stevie exclaimed, all too loudly, when she saw him approach, and her hand was suddenly on his arm too. She looked drunk, and was wearing her usual flannel shirt. “Long time no see!”

“Literally just hours, Stevie,” he smiled, and his eyes wandered on David without him wanting too.

“Hi,” David waved, as Stevie didn’t seem like she was going to introduce him. “I’m David.”

“David Rose,” Patrick nodded, then explained when he saw David’s surprised look. “You signed up for our newsletter.”

David squinted his eyes. “That doesn’t sound like me.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not. You study history, right? Or was it art?” David’s shocked face made Patrick instantly chuckle.

“It was  _ you _ !” David said, then turned to Stevie. “You know  _ him _ ?!” Stevie shrugged, not entirely sure of what was happening. David huffed, and Patrick only wanted to tease him more. “Well, I didn’t recognize you without the whole… war paint and very fitted clothes,” he said, gesturing to his outfit.

“Yeah, I do actually have a life outside of jumping at people to get them to sign up for a newsletter.”

“I wouldn't have thought.”

“Excuse me,” Stevie said, reminding Patrick that he wasn't standing alone in a room with David, no matter how much it felt like it as they were talking. “You two know each other?”

David chose to mumble something to Stevie, whose face lit up as she badly hid a smile. Patrick just waited, intrigued by what David was saying. Had he talked about him? How did David even know Stevie, anyway? 

“What are you doing here?” Patrick asked when he noticed that Stevie had chosen to just stare and smile, and probably forgot what was happening. Patrick was mostly talking to David, who seemed able to hold a conversation, at least. 

“I live nearby, and I know James. And Stevie didn't want to come alone.”

“It's funnier that way! Oh my god, Patrick, David can be so fun at parties,” Stevie was slurring and it was nice to see her outside of class, but odd to see her smile. Patrick realized she had never smiled in class or when he had talked to her.

“I'm sorry, 'can be'? I'm  _ always _ fun,” David said, putting his hand on his heart, as if hurt by the comment, and Patrick chuckled. Somehow, he doubted that was the case. “What about you,  _ Patrick _ , what are you doing here?”

There was no reason for his cheeks to redden, yet he felt himself blush. Probably the alcohol, he concluded. 

“I'm in class with James. And this one,” he answered, pointing to Stevie. “Need me to spell out the name of our studies? I do know what it's called.”

Stevie burst out laughing and tried to cover it with a sip of her beer, but it was enough for Patrick to piece together that David might have talked about his rambling about his degree. The thought made Patrick smile even more, as if that was possible. 

“Well, while it was very nice and humiliating to see you again, I think I should get this one home,” David said, getting ready to drag Stevie out. She pushed him off, without too much success. 

Patrick moved to the other side of Stevie. “Let me help you, I was heading out already.”

Davie didn't put that much of a fight before accepting the help, and they guided Stevie outside. Patrick offered his car, but David was living too close to bother, and they walked back to his place. Stevie was doing most of the talking, rambling about things Patrick tuned out after a bit. It seemed that David was letting her ramble too, barely paying attention.

He decided not to make a comment when they stopped in front of a fancy-looking house. He didn’t know anything about David, but the place didn’t look inexpensive, even for a flatshare. David thanked him, and Patrick didn’t feel like offering to carry Stevie further into the place. He didn’t want to intrude, and the argument with Divya was still bothering him. He wasn’t sure he was up to see yet another rich man’s place. Sometimes, it just reminded him a bit too much of all the struggle and thoughts he had with money. This night was busy enough to be adding money to his stress. He walked back towards the party house, then decided against it, and walked back home. He didn’t live all that close and he would have to get his car back at some point, but the walk would help. He had to organize his thoughts for the day after. He had to think about his relationship, and what to say. He didn’t want to end up alone, but that seemed to be what was coming. Break ups were never easy.


	4. Chapter 4

David looked at his phone as soon as it rang, as if he had been waiting for a distraction. Well, he had been. He was supposed to read this material for the next day, but he couldn't focus. It wouldn't be the first time he'd show up to class without having read what they were asked to, but he had been on a good streak since the beginning of the year. It had only been a little over a month, but that was an achievement in itself. He knew that the first slip and fall would create a domino effect over the next few months. 

But he was just so goddamn bored, and he couldn't be arsed to care. 

“What's up?” He asked without so much as a hello. It was Alexis, she would understand. She probably was calling for a reason, anyway.

“Ew, David!” Well, that was an unexpected greeting. David looked around the room, wondering if she was seeing something in the room she really wouldn’t like. “I thought I was calling another David, didn’t expect to see you,” she explained after a bit, and David just blinked. “Anyway, what do you want?”

“You called me!” He answered defensively. First, she was calling him by mistake, then reacted in a very unflattering way when seeing him, and now she was asking what he wanted, as if he had been the one calling.

“Well, I probably should go, then.”

“No, no, I wanted to call you anyway!” He said quickly, because the prospect of going back to studying wasn’t very appealing.

Alexis just looked at him through the screen as if he had said something in another language she didn’t speak. “That’s new. Oh my god, did something happen? Are you sick? Are you dying? Did mom and dad die?”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not dying! No one’s dying, or dead! Just…” David stopped, because he wasn’t sure what to say. 

“Now that you’re here,” she said, and he was grateful he didn’t have to finish his sentence.

She started talking, and rambling, and telling a crazy story David knew was true. Alexis didn’t really lie, but she did live a crazy life. This one wasn’t as extraordinary as usual, and maybe it was because she wasn’t telling it with the same intonation as she usually did. David listened, but frowned after a while.

“Are you okay?” He asked, because she sounded oddly… disappointed in the story. She was usually much more enthusiastic, or simply casual about it, but she sounded annoyed at that moment.

“Duh,” she answered, without really answering. There was a pause, and David let her think, without interrupting her. “It’s just…” She stopped, much like he had, and her whole body moved in frustration. David knew her enough to recognize it.

“You’re bored?” He offered, and her face briefly illuminated.

“Yes, oh my god! David, it’s so  _ boring _ , I’ve done it before, I’ve seen it before, you know?” He did know, because he had lived with her at some point, and he had heard  _ a lot  _ of different stories. Even when she was much younger - too young. “There’s something missing,” she said, and David chewed the inside of his cheek.

Somehow, he could understand. It resonated with him. Not that he wanted to explore that feeling any time soon.

“Maybe you should try to stop and stay in the same place for a while?” He offered, because why not. He travelled around a bit too, but he still had a place to bounce back to. A place to call home. New York, mostly. He wondered if uni was his new place. It sounded lame.

“That’s sweet, David, but no,” she said. “It’s fine, next week we’re going away, he wouldn’t tell me where, but I’m sure we’ll find something to do!”

“You always find something,” he said, trying to read between the lines. Was she really alright? He had a tendency to worry too much about her, but it always seemed to prove right. Anyone in their right mind would be worried when they were called by an embassy, asking him to quickly get some passport to his sister or she would be taken away. She didn’t have the behind the scenes of what had happened every time something like that occurred. And David didn't want her to know about it, but he still felt himself grow worried. What if she didn’t find something she liked? What if she was miserable because she wasn’t having fun anymore? Could he do anything to help her?

It always started like this. He would overthink it, only to do nothing and wait for a call from Alexis or someone speaking for her because she was unavailable or literally held hostage - yes, held hostage, David had once been called about that. He’d had the brilliant idea of not writing an essay until the last minute, and that had coincided with that call. He hadn’t slept all night, turned in an essay that barely made any sense, and he was pretty sure some of it was not written in English. Alexis had turned out more than alright, his grade had not been so good. 

Alexis had changed over the years, David liked to think. She had matured, in her own special way. She had relapsed with that  _ bad, bad _ reality show, and that god-awful song, but she was doing better. 

Was she? He had seen her through all ages, as far as he could remember. It was the first time she admitted to being bored, it was a first. She would have never done that before, because she always saw everything in a positive light. She always tried to appreciate things. Oh, no, was it a bad sign that she was admitting that? Did it mean she was not liking life anymore? Probably not, that was a bit of an exaggeration. David was good at those. Maybe she was just growing up again, realizing that all those adventures weren’t all that great. Maybe she was seeing it with a fresh pair of eyes. Maybe it could be good.

But, as someone had once probably said, you should look at your own garden before you cared about others’ - which was dumb, where were you gonna get inspiration, otherwise. David wondered about his own changes. How was David from three years ago and David from now so different? 

He still stressed around exams. He still had very little standards because his self-esteem was too low to be healthy, so he still slept around quite a lot. He still hadn’t been in a relationship for more than three months, unless you counted that one time he exchanged letters with an inmate, but he doubted that counted. He still came back to New York, without hesitation. He still slipped back into old habits, hung out with people who didn’t seem to appreciate him, who were all too superficial for David.

Should he change more? Should he have already changed? He had a best friend, that was new. Someone he respected - mostly - and liked - most of the time. But, really, someone who had stayed by his side for more than a year, who was still there after… everything they had been through. Stevie was still here, she stayed here, even if every time David peeled another layer, he was scared she would suddenly flee. He was scared he would one day become too much, because it was always like that. Except it had been almost three years, and she was still here. He was also still here. He hadn’t grown bored. He had never really stayed in any sort of relationship long enough to be the one to get bored, but he guessed that he could grow bored of someone, too, if others grew bored of him so quickly. But he still enjoyed Stevie’s presence, and he still laughed with her, no matter how many times a day he wanted to murder her.

He barely registered the end of the conversation with his sister, lost in his thoughts. He was back to staring at his homework, and wondering about existential change. Which was not something he enjoyed too much. Self-reflection and questioning were not things he did a lot. Maybe he should just work, and read that boring paper. 

* * *

He was late. He was  _ so  _ late. His professor was going to murder him, for sure. It wasn't the first time he was late for a class, but it was the first time for this one, and the professor scared him slightly. He was fine not being the center of attention in this class. Being late didn't help not being the centre of attention. He was going to melt and die before he even got there. 

“ _ Imma die _ ” he texted Stevie as he walked quickly across campus. 

At least he had done the reading. He had stayed up way too late to read it, only to end up late to class, but he had done it. He hadn't broken his streak yet. 

He needed to hurry, he thought, trying to speed up without actually running. He needed to--

“Sorry!”

He stopped in his track as someone on a bike zoomed past him, only to suddenly brake and stop near the bike rack. David wanted to be offended by the almost accident, but his brain was too busy salivating with the sight in front of him. He was an easy man, someone on a bike wearing jeans could be enough for him. It was definitely enough now, he thought as he adjusted his sunglasses and not so subtly checked out the individual. Who even rode a bike with jeans? Thank the gods for this morning gift in front of him. 

He looked up when the man turned - reasonably fast, even if his eyes lingered a tad too much - and suddenly the ground beneath him seemed to disappear. 

“Oh my god, Patrick?”

Patrick looked up, surprised, and his face quickly relaxed into a smile. Why did he have to smile like this? 

“Oh, hi, David!” He answered, securing the padlock for his bike. “Sorry, I'm really late. Long time no see, how are you?”

“Fine,” David said, then registered the first part of his sentence. “Fuck! I'm late too! Catch you later.” Later? Why later? They had only met twice, it wasn't like he had his number or anything. Maybe Stevie had it. Not that it mattered, what would he do with that anyway? 

“I still have to see you at a game,” Patrick said, standing up, and  _ oh _ , David wanted to do things with that body.

He mentally snapped fingers for his mind to focus back on the conversation. And the situation. He was just tired and horny, and he was late for class. 

“Yeah, mh, I don't think that's going to happen.”

“Oh, I'll make you come,” Patrick just said, so sure of himself, and, well, what he was saying didn't help. David sure could be convinced to come for Patrick. One way would be more efficient than a baseball game.  _ No, focus.  _

And that confidence… That was hot. 

“Your personal driver forgot to pick you up?” Patrick said, as if not quite ready to leave the conversation. He tensed after saying that, but David didn't know why. 

They were fast-walking towards the same direction, so David didn't have an excuse to leave. 

“He doesn't work for me anymore, Alexis had some strong arguments that drivers were a bad idea so I stopped,” David answered, not explaining who Alexis was whatsoever, because sometimes he forgot that people didn't just live in his brain with him. Patrick was just grinning, now. “What?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head, but his smile stayed on, and David wanted to smile, but he had the slight feeling that Patrick was making fun of him. 

“Shouldn't you be running to your class?”

“I don't see  _ you  _ running.”

“Oh, I don't run.”

“Really? I'm  _ so _ surprised, David.” There was that shit-eating grin again, that David just wanted to erase from his face as much as he wanted to keep seeing it.

“Hey!” David said weakly. “That's my building,” he then added when they got to the art district. “It was nice being late with you,” he chose to say, trying to hide a smile. It felt oddly nice and good, talking to Patrick. But, damn, wasn’t that a lame sentence to say.

“Pleasure's mine. Have a nice day, David.” Why did he have to say his name so much? That seemed unfair. 

He didn't add anything, so he wouldn't have to deal with more of Patrick and they parted with not much more than this, because they were both late, after all. As soon as David was sitting in the classroom, and avoided most of the humiliation, he texted Stevie. 

“ _ Finally got there. Barely late, really” _

_ “Good. Now pay attention. _ ”

David didn't answer and tried to participate when the teacher asked questions. Hopefully, he would be forgiven and forgotten that way. 

He paid attention to his messages again when he saw more than one, all from Stevie. Wasn't she supposed to be in class? 

“ _ David _ ”

_ “David are you fucking Patrick?” _

_ “He arrived as late as you, he looked well fucked, like he just had a quickie” _

_ “Aren't you too old for a quickie?” _

_ "If you're fucking, you are legally bound to tell me _ "

David hid a smile and tried not to roll his eyes before answering. 

“ _ Pay attention to class. And no, no quickie, there's no age for it, and he just came on a bike and ran.” _

_ “How do you know all this, then?” _

_ “Stevie, we're not fucking. He's straight.” _

_ “Is he? _ ”

David chose not to answer, because he couldn't be too active in class if he kept checking his messages. And he wondered now. No, Patrick was definitely straight. Yes, there was no way he wasn't. Not that it mattered, or anything. Stevie was the one who'd asked. David was pretty sure Patrick had a girlfriend. And you couldn’t wear these jeans as a uni student and not be straight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this!!  
> I have so far planned out more than 20 chapters, I only have to get writing now ;) But this is going to be a long fic, guys.


	5. Chapter 5

“I need to run a quick errand,” she had said. Emphasis on the _quick_. Patrick was still waiting. He tapped the table with his fingers, told his leg to stop moving, and checked his phone for the hundredth time.

“ _Are you coming back?_ ”

“ _omw_ ” was the only answer, and it took him a while - and a google search - to piece together that it meant that she was on her way, and not just random letters.

“Hi, Patrick!” he heard a voice say, and looked up to see Twyla.

She had just started working here at the beginning of the year, and Patrick worked on caffeine enough to know that she was new, and he was polite and curious enough to ask about her. She always gladly talked to him, often about her family, which always seemed to be too much info, but why not. It was always a nice distraction.

“Hey, Twyla.”

“Are you waiting for someone? Do you want coffee?”

“Actually, we’re going to eat first, whenever she shows up.”

“Oh, you’ve got a date! That’s nice!” she winced, not even letting him speak up. “Oh, do you? I’m sorry, maybe she’s not coming. Last time I waited so long for someone, they never showed up.” 

Patrick identified the moment Twyla zoned out, mentally caught up in a story she was most definitely thinking about. She was a sweet girl, in her first year of uni, but she seemed much happier to talk about her job than her studies. Patrick was sometimes scared uni would crush her kind soul, but she seemed unaffected by it. He didn’t know her all that well and he only saw her at her job, to be fair. 

“Twyla?” He nudged after a while, because she hadn’t moved or said anything. “I’m not waiting for a date, and I think your boss wants you _behind_ the counter?” Patrick smiled and nodded to her boss, because he was waving at her, without her seeing him.

“Oh, right! Well, let me know when you want to order,” she smiled at him.

“Thanks, I will.”

He sighed when she left, and his legs started up again. He let them have it and move. He didn’t like waiting a whole lot. He didn't have the luxury to wait a lot in his life. He liked to plan, he liked to know what was going to happen and when, and he liked to be ready for it. This lunch was not going like he wanted it to go, and it frustrated him, and the fact that his brain couldn’t stop thinking he’d have had time to do other stuff, had he known, also frustrated him. He had agreed to eat with someone, and he shouldn’t be thinking about what else he could have done. It was good to take a break. He studied too much, literally everyone around him kept telling him. Which was why he had agreed to this. To take a break.

Not from his brain, apparently. When was the last time he had gone for a coffee or an actual lunch with someone? Maybe Divya. Had it been that long? It felt like forever ago, when they had sat and talked. He hadn’t been entirely in control that day, too, but they had talked calmly, and it had helped Patrick. They hadn’t been going anywhere as a couple, it had been obvious, but they had still talked, tried to figure out what was not working and how to improve those points. She had really tried, had said he was sweet and nice, and that she really appreciated him, but she couldn’t be stuck in a relationship where she wasn’t getting what she wanted, needed or deserved. He could only agree to that. He didn’t want to hold her back from a great guy who would truly appreciate her and make her happy. He had liked her, a lot, but he had never seen their relationship lasting in time. So, they had broken up over breakfast. And since then Patrick busied himself as much as possible, always doing something. Rarely sitting down to have lunch with someone who was late.

He started doing a mental list of the things he needed to do before the next day, until it wasn’t mental anymore and he opened yet another note on his phone to write down everything he had to do.

He needed to account for Ray, who would talk to him, but also cook for him, so he could delete “making food” from the list. It didn’t take a lot of time usually, because he kept eating food that was either dry or quick to prepare. No time to cook an elaborate meal, and no real want to. He had to study, read over the notes he had taken for the seminar he had the day after, organize his notes of the day and read over those as well, to correct typos and mistakes. He needed to start summarizing everything so it wouldn’t become overwhelming when he got to exam periods. He had to check in with his parents at some point, so he put it down on the list, or he would forget to do it and five months would have gone by. 

He ignored Rachel’s text that popped up on his screen. He didn’t need the distraction, right now. How did he survive when he was in a relationship? He remembered studying a lot with Divya, she had been rather studious too.

He needed to take a walk, go hike, but he didn’t have time that evening. He put it on a separate list for the weekend. Was he stressing out too much? No, everything was fine.

“Oh my god, are you stalking me?”

He knew those first three words said by this man a bit too much, considering they had only briefly talked a couple of times. Yet, his whole body responded to David’s voice. His legs stopped moving, his shoulders relaxed and his lips split to form a smile. The sheer power of that man’s presence was odd, but Patrick tried not to think about it too much.

“What?” He asked, looking up to David, who was grimacing as he took off his sunglasses. 

“You keep being where I’m at,” David explained. “Is this seat taken?”

“I dunno, David, this looks more like you’re stalking me,” Patrick instantly replied, gesturing to David that he could sit. He was wearing a black sweater, which didn’t look too suffocating for the weather this time, and white pants. Patrick wondered how he managed to not stain those pants instantly. Patrick would never wear light coloured pants, it seemed like a bad idea. 

“I’m not,” David said, setting down his sunglasses and checking his phone. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Waiting on Stevie,” Patrick sighed, looking around to see if she wouldn’t magically appear at the mention of her name. Sadly, she didn’t. “And you?”

David was blinking at him. “ _I’m_ waiting on Stevie. She didn’t mention you,” he said absently, thinking about something. He shook his head, as if to shake the thought out, whatever it had been.

“She didn’t mention you either,” Patrick said, also looking at his phone to check if Stevie had texted. She hadn’t. He shrugged to himself and chuckled. “How are you?”

“What are you doing?” David asked, and Patrick frowned, but he kept on an amused small smile.

“Talking to you? We’re both waiting for the same person, we can talk.”

“Mh, but we don’t have to,” David said, and Patrick let his head fall as he chuckled. Was it nervous, was it frustrated? A bit of both. 

He liked talking to David, and he would enjoy it if it wasn’t always with Stevie as a messenger. He couldn’t even explain why he wanted to learn more about David. He was very different from him, from what he had seen, or even the friends he had hung with in recent years. He seemed to care about what he wore, more so than any of Patrick’s friends or exes, and he looked… He looked like he needed to be cared for, but also teased to the core. He even seemed to answer well to Patrick’s teasing, that was always a good sign. And for some reason his teasing got almost to an obnoxious level around David, without Patrick being able to control it, even if he pretended he could.

He liked to take control of things. So, when he saw that David had still put his phone down and seemed to be willing to talk despite his complaint, Patrick took charge.

“Could I get your contact information so we don’t have to keep running into each other?”

David was smiling too, now. “My contact information?”

“Yeah, a phone number, an instagram account, a facebook page? Something I can contact you on,” Patrick said, and he hoped he didn’t sound desperate, he just wanted to keep talking to David. 

“A facebook page?” David pursed his lips, hiding a smile, and Patrick wanted to see the side of his mouth go up a lot more in his life. “I do have Instagram and a phone number. My facebook is an embarrassing montage of me from 12 to 15, so let’s avoid that.”

Patrick almost said he wanted to see that embarrassing montage, but something prevented him from doing so. He wondered how far he could push it, with teasing David. It was fun, and David’s answers only made him want to keep doing it, but they didn’t know each other enough for all the teasing Patrick had in him.

David was holding his hand out and Patrick understood he wanted his phone, so he gave it to him, already unlocked. He tried not to look at what he was doing, but it was his own phone so he should be able to look. David worked fast, put the phone back down, then took his own.

Patrick looked at the screen of his phone as he took it back, seeing that David had called his number. He hung up when he saw David already typing on his phone. 

“Your account’s public?” David asked, and it took a second for Patrick to catch up. He was talking about instagram, right.

“Yours isn’t?”

“Oh, I’m not getting stalked on there, no thanks. It happened to Alexis, that’s creepy.”

Here was that name again, that made Patrick wonder who Alexis was. “Alexis?”

“Alexis is my sister,” David explained and Patrick nodded. “Is that just pictures of… landscapes? And _sports_?”

The way David kept talking about sports made Patrick want to tease him all the more. “Yes, it’s pictures I take, most of them of my hikes or baseball events. I don’t take a lot of pictures.”

“But you do… on… _hikes_ and at _sporting events_?” David asked, and he was sort of smiling, sort of grimacing, and Patrick caught himself smiling back.

“Yes. A problem with that?”

“No, _no_ ,” David laughed, insisting on his last no. “I just didn’t think you’d hike.”

Patrick shrugged, but he was also looking at his phone, checking David’s own instagram, scrolling very far down and quickly, because that was the best way to tease someone, in his experience. He clicked on a random picture. “Weird flex,” he said, turning the phone to show David. “Why is no one dressed up but you? And as a pizza delivery guy out of everything?”

“Oh my god,” David said, trying to snatch Patrick’s phone away. “Do _you_ have a picture with Jared Leto? I don’t think so. There’s a perfect reason for my costume.”

“Are you going to share that reason with the class?” Patrick laughed, pulling his phone away every time David tried to reach for it. 

“What are we sharing with the class?” a third voice said, and Patrick was reminded that they were not alone in the world. Why did it keep happening when he was around David? Stevie was standing near the table, her arms crossed. “What are you two doing here?”

“You invited both of us,” David explained. “And you look like shit.”

She truly did. If anything, it was even worse than in the morning. Patrick had noticed she looked more tired than usual, but now that they were so close, and that David said it, she did look very sleep deprived.

“Shit, sorry, fuck, I forgot, David. I’m so sorry.” She kept apologizing, while David was looking for something in his bag.

“You’re fine. Here, take this. Just, read the instructions, have a steady hand if possible, and get some sleep,” he said, putting something on the table. Both Stevie and Patrick read the name. “It’s for the bags under your eyes,” David explained, when they didn’t seem to react.

“Oh, thanks,” Stevie bagged the item, then sat down as well. “Do you mind if we all eat together? Sorry again.”

David and Patrick exchanged a quick glance, and Patrick nodded.

“It’s fine, and I’m paying for lunch, so… Don’t go crazy, but don’t worry about it. Not you, Patrick, you get to eat when you’ll learn to appreciate someone’s instagram account a bit better.”

Patrick laughed, but didn’t answer. He did get to eat, he just had to pay for it. They came to a silent agreement to help make Stevie feel better, because she clearly wasn’t on her best day. Patrick didn’t know why, and he didn’t ask, but he didn’t need to know her well to see she wasn’t doing too well. So they talked, they teased each other, they laughed, they managed to make Stevie laugh, and it was all that mattered.

He hadn’t grown extremely close as friends with Stevie, but Patrick had overheard some of her sarcastic comments in class. He had decided that he could talk to her more, because someone who could use sarcasm was always a better person to be around than a too serious individual. He talked to her a bit between classes, and he could see himself becoming friends with her, further into the year. It seemed like they were heading this way, and it was nice to have someone he felt a bit better with. He didn’t tease his study group, he didn’t even really talk about himself, outside of the occasional invitation to come see the team’s games. He wasn’t sure any of them had ever shown up, or at least not for him. It was really more of a study group, so it was nice to have someone that wasn’t entirely focused on studying, as it was already all Patrick could think about. And money, and how to pay for his next semester, and how long he’d have to live with a roommate, still.

Okay, he worried about a lot of things. And Stevie helped not think about some of those things. Helping someone else helped him, too. She had asked for help in classes a few times, and he was happy to guide someone with things he was comfortable with. She was a good listener, and she tried her best. And, well, she could behave like a jerk, and as weird as it could sound, Patrick liked that in people. It meant that, sometimes, he could also be one. Still with respect and a knowledge of limits not to cross over, but sometimes it was just fun to have an entire conversation led by sarcasm. Maybe _jerk_ was a strong word. Not that it mattered all that much.

Stevie and David both made him feel like he could be someone that was getting closer to his true self. Even if, on some days, he wasn’t sure who his true self was. He thought he knew himself and who he was, but then he met people like David and he wasn’t so sure anymore. 

But it was what he wanted, anyway. He hadn’t really been very socially active since his break-up with Divya, except for baseball practice. Maybe it helped him stay sane. He had gradually become more in want of control lately, and busying himself with way too much for a single day. Maybe a shift in his habits could help, no matter how scary it sounded. He only thought that because of how comfortable it felt to spend his lunch break with Stevie and David.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys still enjoy this fic :) 5 chapters in and they're becoming FRIENDS haha, I've never written such a slow slow burn :p  
> Consider leaving a comment to help motivate your writers! If you have suggestions for the fic, that is also something you can leave in the comments, if you'd like to read about our boys doing something specific, you can ask and I'll try to write it in!  
> If you want to chat up about SC, don't hesitate to check me @fafsernir or @trashmel on tumblr :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to Pine67 for the incredible help, support, and betaing :D  
> I have written up to chapter 11 so far, and more will come, we're in for a long slow burn! Hope you enjoy

David stared at the screen, as if it would suddenly display something else. But he’d been staring at the message for a while now, and it was always the same thing. Patrick had sent him a date, an hour, and a place, and David was confused. Was he just… supposed to go there? Could he drag Stevie along? What was even happening? He had decided to text back question marks, because he didn't know what else to answer. He was waiting for Patrick’s reply, and trying not to feel nervous. There was no reason to feel nervous.

Patrick and he had been talking for a few weeks now. It was comfortable and nice. It felt like it had when he had first met Stevie and started to hang out with her, except it wasn’t exactly similar. For one, Stevie had never flirted with him, their brief hooking up had happened mostly because of weed. She hadn’t even known he could be into her, because they’d never really had a conversation about it. She’d only wondered after they’d had sex, which David could understand. He briefly explained how he saw his own sexuality, and they hadn’t talked about it since. There wasn’t anything to talk about other than knowing gender didn’t matter to him. 

Patrick _was_ flirting. Somehow. Unintentionally, probably, maybe that was just how he talked to people - not to Stevie, though, and David had no other comparison. He seemed like a flirty kind of guy, at least when David talked to him. But he was definitely straight. Poor man had a pretty heteronormative view on life. Which wasn’t bad in itself, David just liked to tease him about that. He liked to tease him about a lot of things, and Patrick teased back. That was what Stevie called flirting. David didn’t consider it flirting. Stevie calling it flirting made him think it was, but he was sure Patrick wasn’t interested in guys, even though David had never asked him. 

His phone buzzed in his hands, and David quickly welcomed the distraction. He didn’t need to think about the sexual preferences of his new friend.

“ _You don’t check your email, do you?_ ”

He frowned, moving quickly to check his inbox, before it hit him. Student inbox, because David had given Patrick his student email address on that embarrassing day of their first meeting. What had Patrick done with his student address?!

He kept refreshing the page because it was taking too long to synchronize, and ignored almost all messages. He couldn’t find what he wanted, so he stopped ignoring all of them and finally found one entitled “Schedule: next game on Saturday!” which seemed a bit too long for an email subject, but he opened it nonetheless.

It was a very formal, albeit badly edited, invitation to the next baseball game, and David almost gagged at the bad formatting, which was clearly designed for desktop views rather than phones. So many things were wrong that he didn’t even know what to start with.

Before closing the app, he saw another email, this time from Patrick’s own email. The subject was simply “Won’t give up”, and it intrigued David enough to click on it. His eyes would never forgive him for doing so.

There was a lot of green, for some reason. White and green. Not the pleasant type of green, but the most god-awful green he had ever seen. It looked like those bad birthday cards you could buy at a store, except it looked like Patrick had been the one to create it. It had David's name on it. 

“If you come, I'll stop sending these, David” was written in the worst font possible. 

David left the page to go to his texts and typed three words in answer to Patrick. 

“ _I hate you_.”

“ _So, are you coming?”_

_“Do you promise to stop with the atrocious font?”_

_“I promise, David.”_

_“Can I bring a +1?”_

_“Stevie already said she'd come.”_

_“I take offense that you'd think I wasn't thinking of someone else”_

_“Were you?”_

_“That's besides the point.”_

_“I'll catch you on the field then ;) Well, hopefully I'll catch balls._ ”

David stared at his phone for a second, then remembered he was playing base _ball_ , so it involved balls. Balls to catch. No hidden meaning in that sentence. There was another message as David's brain had short circuited. 

_“I'll pay for food afterwards.”_

_“You should have led with that!”_

He smiled at his phone as he kept texting with Patrick for a bit. He was looking forward to seeing him play, even though sports events were not things he enjoyed or wanted to watch. He'd get to see fitted pants and eat food, there were worse ways to spend his weekend. 

* * *

“So, what does it actually mean?” David asked, as he held out clean sheets for Stevie. She didn’t comment anymore on the way he held them, despite them being clean.

They were at the motel where Stevie worked to pay for her studies, and Stevie had rambled again about her great-aunt, who had passed away recently. David tried to be as distracting as possible for her, as it seemed to hit her in a particularly bad way. She was having a bit of an existential crisis and David was not entirely sure he could help her with it, but he tried his best.

The situation also sounded extremely complicated, but that might be because Stevie couldn’t keep calm while she explained it. She started again, this time doing the bed, which helped her organize her thoughts, apparently.

“I own the motel now. Inherited it and all. I guess that means I have employees now? That’s weird. But what if… What if I’m stuck here, David? Should I sell the motel? But then…”

“Then what are you working towards if you don’t have the motel?”

“Exactly!”

David understood having no aim, but lots of money. If she sold the motel, she could live comfortably for a bit, but she wouldn’t have work to do anymore. No matter how tired she was, it gave her something to do, a goal to achieve, and it took a long part of her days, along with class. If she suddenly didn’t have that, then she would have much more free time, and might want to travel around, enjoy the money she made, and drop out. David had been like that, except he had grown surrounded by money and didn’t once have to work for it. Stevie never had that. 

“I don’t think I should be the one to tell you that if you don’t sell, you can always hire someone to do everything and still get money while doing nothing.”

“I couldn't,” she sighed. “If I own it, I want to be here, because I’ll keep thinking about it as long as I have it.”

“I could ask my dad for advice, if you want,” David offered, then thought for a second as Stevie struggled with the sheet. “I mean, you’re also surrounded by people who want to work in business. You’re literally yourself one of those people.”

“Am I?” Stevie snapped, looking up at him. “Do I want to work in business, David?”

“Okay, deep breaths,” he said, because that was something she said to him when he got frustrated, and it helped him calm down. “Why did you switch to this major?”

“I don’t know!” she said defensively, shoving frustration in the way she treated the sheets. “Why did I do that?”

“That’s sideways,” David tried to be helpful, then took a step back when she glared at him. “You told me you wanted to help more at the motel. You wanted to do more.”

“Do _more_ , not do everything!” she snapped, then sighed. She took a few deep breaths as David showed her a pattern to breathe. “It’s a lot, David. And I’m not great at those classes, in case you didn’t notice.”

“It’s a start. You could ask Patrick. Isn’t he top of your class or something?”

Stevie shook her head, clearly thinking about it as she flattened out the now-made bed. Then she straightened up suddenly. “Patrick! We’re not late, are we?!”

David pursed his lips. He had somehow hoped she would forget about the game, because he had a lot of regrets for having said yes. He could have blamed her if she had forgotten.

“We’ve got time,” he shrugged. They didn’t.

“Come on, David, time to go see your boyfriend play!”

“Not my boyfriend,” David sighed. As much as he tried not to think of Patrick in any other way than a friend, Stevie _loved_ to tease him about that. She only did so because he got defensive about it, but he couldn’t help it. If he rationalized it to her, maybe his own feelings would be rationalized too. Patrick wasn’t interested in him, and it wasn’t good for David to be attracted to someone he knew he didn’t deserve anyway. Patrick was too good, too nice, too funny for him. And he wasn’t even attracted to him, to start with. Stevie was just a mean bully to David.

They ended up making their way to the game pretty fast after quickly finishing up with that room. There were less people at the game than David would have thought. He had never attended anything related to sports at school unless he was forced to, but he expected the university baseball team to be a bit more popular than that. Then again, David was wildly uninterested by it, and he surely wasn’t the only one. And the team’s name was again very confusing, he still thought they should have put the name of the school or something to help identify who the team was.

Stevie embarrassingly cried out Patrick’s name when she noticed Patrick was scanning the crowd for them. David was pretty sure he had forgotten about them.

Then, something weird happened. 

They couldn’t hear anything from where they were watching the game, but they had a good view of the game. What David witnessed on the field was both very disturbing and oddly arousing.

Patrick was a calm person, if anything. He teased a lot but he didn’t snap, he didn’t raise his voice, and he seemed to always be in control without shouting orders at anyone. But, as the game went on, Patrick was clearly shouting orders at his fellow players. He got frustrated every time things weren’t going the way he liked, and he was incredibly fast at chasing the ball. David didn’t want to be on the receiving end of Patrick shouting orders, but at the same time he could see that boss-like attitude do the trick for him in bed.

Which was wrong, very wrong, to think about Patrick that way, because last he had consulted his brain and body, he was _not_ attracted to him. And now he was the only player he was staring at on the field. The way the uniform hugged his body made David want to join him and shake him out of his clothes. 

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck_ , his brain provided. That was the last thing he needed, to be aware of his attraction to Patrick. If only he would stop running around, catching balls, sporting those adorable paint streaks across his cheeks, smiling in the cutest way whenever things went well… 

David could add Patrick to multiple lists he had. Being attracted to a straight man, to someone who wasn’t interested in him, to someone he didn’t think he deserved, to someone he couldn’t have, to a friend. A lot of those lists often crossed over. Patrick was ticking all the boxes and creating a new one. Being attracted to someone nice and considerate. David didn’t want to dive into that can of worms and what it said about him that Patrick was the first in that category.

“My grandma throws better than that, David! Wake up before I step on the field!” Hearing his name helped David ground himself to reality. He grew confused as to why someone was assaulting him like this until he realized the voice had come from the crazy-looking coach of Patrick’s team screaming at one of the players. She had been busy looking scary and very invested on the side of the field since the beginning of the game.

“I know this is not addressed to me, but it feels like a personal attack, and it’s highly threatening,” David said to Stevie, who just chuckled.

“I’m sure that can be applied to you as well.”

“Team sports are the worst,” he mumbled.

At least Stevie seemed to be having fun. He followed her lead and the crowd’s reactions to know when to cheer, and as the game continued, David caught himself enjoying being a supporter. It was nice to hang out with Stevie, see her shout encouragement and mutter somewhat soft insults when the other team’s score went up. It was fun to see a whole crowd, even if it was less than he’d have thought, cheering on their team. It was good to see Patrick clapping his hands, jumping on the spot, encouraging his teammates and running around in victory. David could get used to having friends and going to support them. Not too often, of course, but it was nice. Even the crazy-yelling coach stopped spooking David every time she shouted.


End file.
